ESG Corporate Monitor is the homepage for a legal Research Project titled “Incorporation of ESG factors in the management of Portuguese companies”. The inception of this initiative takes place in the Law School of the University of Lisbon’s Research Centre for Private Law (CIDP – Centro de Investigação de Direito Privado), as part of its research line devoted to “Modernisation of Corporate Law”.

The research project has as its mission statement the following aims:

• Promote legal literacy in sustainability matters. The legal framework is still fairly new, fast evolving, complex, and difficult to navigate. We intend to simplify the legal outline by producing and making available, to a broader audience, materials that help understand the applicable regulatory framework. We believe in the power of open access – all outputs produced by the research project will be freely available on our website that is intended to be a gateway for the legal discussion surrounding sustainability matters.
• Promote debate, dialogue and cooperation among academics, practitioners, business leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders, through international conferences. This research project has lined up, among other events, the organization of an international scientific conference, gathering all the main experts in this domain, as well as a publication containing the conference proceedings, in full alignment with the aim of open access.
• Gather information on Portuguese companies, both listed and unlisted and from different industries and sectors, in order to gain insight into how they incorporate Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) factors in their management and governance practices. The data collected will inform a comprehensive report that shall also be published in this website.

Linked to the presented mission statement, the ESG corporate monitor project intends to complement the plethora of existing economic analysis on ESG implementation with its complex legal background and implications. With an ever-evolving regulatory background, one of the biggest challenges of market players is to identify what is applicable and how to implement it. We will strive to shed light on this matter whilst providing a critical input on how companies are adjusting to this new legal environment.